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Improvement in photovoltaic performance of anthracene-containing PPE–PPV polymer-based bulk heterojunction solar cells with silver nanoparticles

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Abstract

In this study, we investigated the effect of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in the active layer of anthracene-containing poly(p-phenylene-ethynylene)-alt-poly(p-phenylene-vinylene):phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (AnE-PVstat:PCBM)-based bulk heterojunction solar cells. By incorporating Ag NPs of 6 nm in diameter, the power conversion efficiency of AnE-PVstat:PCBM solar cells was improved to 3.10 % from a value of 2.46 % for the solar cells fabricated without nanoparticles. Moreover, ISOS-L-1 stability test showed that the lifetime of the cells was also significantly improved by doping Ag NPs into the active layer.

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Acknowledgments

DAM Egbe and C Ulbricht are grateful to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for financial support in the framework of the priority program SPP 1355.

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Correspondence to Tülay Aslı Tumay.

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Tore, N., Parlak, E.A., Tumay, T.A. et al. Improvement in photovoltaic performance of anthracene-containing PPE–PPV polymer-based bulk heterojunction solar cells with silver nanoparticles. J Nanopart Res 16, 2298 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-014-2298-1

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